


Moving Forward, Moving Back

by SydneySunshine



Category: Veronica Mars (Movie 2014)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-04
Packaged: 2018-01-21 22:37:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1566527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SydneySunshine/pseuds/SydneySunshine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>MOVIE SPOILERS</p>
<p>Awkward conversations in a post-murder charges world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moving Forward, Moving Back

**Author's Note:**

> Missing scene fic. I am obsessed with both the reading and the writing of it. 
> 
> The longer I look at punctuation, the less sense it makes. Inevitable mistakes, all mine.

Veronica snaps awake on a surge of adrenaline when she feels the tap on her knee, and forces the panic back down as the steady whine and beep of Keith’s monitors tell her that the status quo hasn’t changed. 

“Sorry to scare you, honey.” The nurse is apologetic about waking her but adamant as she informs Veronica that visiting hours are done and she’ll need to leave for the day. 

“What if he wakes up? I don’t want him to be alone.” Veronica is still foggy from the nap, and closer to tears than she’d like at the idea of leaving him. 

“He’s sedated, honey. He won’t wake up. We have your number and we’ll call you right away if anything changes, but he’s stable and right now you need to take care of yourself.”

Veronica accepts defeat reluctantly, laying her hand on her father’s chest for a moment to take comfort from the steady rise and fall of his breath. 

“Your friend’s waiting outside to give you a ride.”

The nurse is speaking again, penetrating the sleep fog Veronica can’t seem to shake until she registers the words. 

“My friend?”

“He’s in the waiting area, just down the hall.”

“Thanks.”

Curiosity, as ever, is the propulsive force that wakes her up and sends Veronica down the hall in search of this mysterious friend. Or not so mysterious really, since Logan is the one who dropped her off this morning, although the friend label probably needs some examination. 

But Wallace is the friend she finds glued to a basketball game on the waiting room tv, too engrossed to even notice her until she plops into the seat next to him. 

“Teachers salary doesn’t cover the full cable package, huh? Gotta sneak a game in where you can?” 

It’s a weak attempt at their usual banter and they both know it, but Wallace lets it slide as he throws an arm around her shoulder. 

“I heard good things about the nurses here, just checking out the situation.”

“You want me to introduce you to Wanda? She’s 46, has five kids and just manhandled me out of the ICU.”

Wallace grins, his tone teasing as he continues “Couldn’t bend her to your will, huh? So there is actually someone in this town who can resist the famous Mars charm.” 

His exaggerated flinch as Veronica socks him in the arm has her smiling, exactly as intended.

“How’s your dad?”

Veronica’s voice catches in her throat as she flashes back to her father looking so beaten and bruised and still on the hospital bed, but she pulls herself together with a firm shake of the head.

“Stable. What are you doing here anyway?”

“Logan called. Thought you might need a ride. He’s still at the base in San Diego.”

“You and Logan are phone buddies now?”

“Keeping up with you is a two person job, woman, so at least until your dad is back in the game - yeah. Deal with it.”

Wallace keeps up a steady flow of conversation – distraction – as he walks Veronica to his car, requiring only the occasional nod from her as he details his master plan for grill domination in her father’s back yard that evening and tucks her into the passenger seat. 

They are halfway home before he speaks again, and there is no judgment in his voice “So you and Logan, huh?”

“You waited fifteen minutes. I’m impressed, Fennel. Never thought you’d hold out that long.”

“I could say the same thing, you know. I’m not going to because I don’t want you to taze me while I’m driving, but I could.”

Veronica laughs. She should probably be offended at the idea that she is that easy to predict, but she’s been wondering if some things weren’t inevitable from the second she agreed to return to Neptune, so she can’t really get too mad at Wallace for having the same thought. 

“Piz and I broke up before anything - I didn’t mean to hurt him.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“And Logan - he’s not the same person he was back then. Neither of us are.”

“I know that too.”

They sink back into silence for the rest of the ride back to her dad’s house and it’s not until they’re in the kitchen and Wallace is pulling out steaks for the grill that she speaks again.

“The circumstances are terrible – big surprise – but being back in Neptune - it’s home. It feels like the right thing. And not just because of my dad.”

“And Logan?”

“I don't know. That feels right too, but it’s not why I’m going to stay.”

“Watch out, Neptune. My girl is back.”

There really is nothing like a good friend and a decent meal to shake a girl out of an exhaustion induced funk. By the time Wallace installs her on the couch with a beer while he stacks the dishwasher Veronica is starting to feel like the world is right side up again. When Wallace returns, ignoring any and all jibes about his excellent housekeeping skills, and loads up the Blazing Saddles DVD for them to watch for the thousandth time, Veronica is feeling entirely like herself again. 

Her self if still pretty tired though, which is why when the knock at the door sounds, Veronica is fast asleep on the couch. Wallace is the one that lets Logan in and, with a slap on the back and a “Tag, you’re it”, leaves him alone with Veronica.

Logan crouches beside the couch, brushing the hair back from Veronica’s face. She stirs briefly, clutching his hand. Logan eases himself onto couch next to her so Veronica is curled up against his side and restarts the movie, with a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. 

*****

Veronica is alone in the bed when she wakes up, with only the haziest memories of Logan moving her from the couch last night and slipping into bed beside her. She rolls over, instinctively looking to curl up against his warm body as the film strip of crazy that makes up the last forty eight hours flickers through her head. 

Judging by the smell of coffee permeating the house – excellent detective skills there, Veronica – he hasn’t gone far and even though it’s revoltingly early and every cell in her body seems to be screaming ‘sleep, you fool’, Veronica pulls herself out of bed to look for Logan, painfully aware she isn’t the only one with some trauma to process. 

He’s sitting at the kitchen bench with his back to her, a steaming cup of coffee in front of him. Veronica runs her hand lightly across his shoulders; conscious of the fact that just because he has spent the last two days being everything she needed, doesn’t mean that she is necessarily the same for him right now. But he catches her hand before she can pull it back awkwardly, threading their fingers together and holding on tight. Veronica pulls back the stool next to him, dropping a kiss on his shoulder as she sits and steals a sip of his coffee. 

“Couldn’t sleep?” Stating the obvious seems as good a way as any to get him talking, and Veronica pulls their linked hands towards her body as if that will help her pull the words out of him. 

“I guess. Yeah. I was thinking about Carrie. What she went through. Dumping your best friend’s body into the ocean? How do you live with something like that on your conscience? How do you even start?” He trails off, not meeting her eyes and Veronica wonders how to answer. She decides the truth is the best bet. 

“I don’t know.” 

“I always knew she had issues, you know, but who doesn’t, right? But that’s - sorry, is it weird for me to talk to you about this?”

“You cared about Carrie. Loved her. It’d be more weird if you weren’t thinking about her after all this. I want to listen. If you want.”

“She had these ups and downs, you know? Like when it was good she was happy and energetic and kind and so much fun to be around. And then when it was bad, I used to say it was like something was pulling her down. Like a weight. Never guessed there was an actual anchor involved. How could they do that? All of them.”

“They were scared, wasted. Not rational anyway. I didn’t know Carrie that well in school, not really, but the one thing I do know for sure about her was that she loyal – crazy, fiercely, do anything for them loyal to her friends. To Susan. I can’t imagine what she must have felt like after losing her like that.”

“How could anyone live with something like that? No wonder she was always high.”

Veronica brings her other hand up to cover his, sandwiching his hand in between hers as she groped for the right words. 

“From what Gia said, I don’t think she could live with it. Live with her self anymore. I think she wanted to come clean. That’s why Cobb went after her. It can’t be coincidence that she was starting to sober up, get herself together, when he- ”

“Maybe if I hadn’t pushed her so hard to get clean, she’d still be here. Ironic, huh – I was terrified she’d overdose and instead, well – you know.”

“You were trying to help her. You were being a damn good friend to Carrie. What happened isn’t your fault.”

“She wasn’t a bad person. She made some seriously bad choices, but she didn’t deserve-“

“Neither did Gia. Nobody does.”

Logan turns to face her, making eye contact for the first time since they started this conversation, and Veronica tries to smile reassuringly but suspects it comes off as more of grimace. 

“Thank you,” He pulls her into his arms as he speaks, tilting her off her own stool and into his lap. Veronica wraps her arms around him, hoping like hell that she can tell him with her body what she is not sure her words can convey: that it’s not his fault, he wasn’t responsible, that she is there for him the way he has been for her these past few days. 

When he pulls back to look at her, Logan has a crooked grin on his face and Veronica can’t help smiling in return.

“Well, that’s one uncomfortable conversation out of the way. Should we move on to discussion of your ex now? How is Piz? Cursing my name?”

“More likely cursing mine. But since he is alive and well and cursing both of us from the safety of New York, how about we hold that conversation for another time. Are you okay?”

“I am. I will be. Thank you. This – the talking? It helps.”

“Happy to be of service, Lieutenant.”


End file.
